Total Warhammer 3 should start improving performance this week
But fully fixing issues will take longer
Performance problems marred the launch of Total War: Warhammer 3 last week, which is a shame because the fantasy strategy game is otherwise pretty great. The developers, Creative Assembly say they're working on fixing it. Yesterday they laid out their plans for improving performance, stability, and a few other issues, expecting to launch the first 'hotfix' patch this week. But some issues have many causes, so they warn it'll take time and multiple patches to really fix the game.
In a forum post yesterday, Creative Assembly said they've been listening to players, and "your feedback has not only helped us understand the areas where your expectations of the current release have fallen short, but have helped drive the direction of where we go from here." They say they've been glad to see players figure out workarounds and fixes for some problems for some people, but blanket fixes for stability and performance problems are harder.
"The unfortunate news is that this has not been the case for everyone—and worse is the fact that there is no single culprit for the variety of issues being reported. This is an understandable source of frustration for those affected, and a complicated landscape for us as we navigate and explore the many possible causes with many possible fixes for the different problems at hand.
"We've already identified numerous actionable options, but each one will only improve things for a *specific* group of users rather than everyone at once. As a result, we've decided to take a surgical approach to address them: deploying smaller hotfixes at a faster rate rather than waiting to compile fixes into a large update that smashes multiple issues at once. We are determined to make improvements as quickly and safely as possible, but it's crucial that we avoid rushing the process at the expense of the game's stability."
They plan to release the first hotfix this week. "The focus of this first build is to address some of the multiplayer lobby issues, the DirectX problems we've seen from players running DX12, and hopeful framerate improvements for players using modern Intel CPUs," they explain. To manage expectations, they do warn that this patch could be delayed if it's not stable enough.
Fully fixing performance is going to take time, they explained, "not only as we work across multiple technical disciplines to identify where the most meaningful changes can be made, but work with all of you to understand what aspects of the game are the most impactful on your experience. At first, you can expect to see small, targeted improvements to specific areas of the game. Then, in later updates, we'll be able to make larger improvements to the stability and other important areas of the game. This is a long-term project—one we expect to be a priority for the foreseeable future!"
In the meantime, some players have found forcing the game into DX11 mode can help with those DX12 woes. But yeah, an official fix would be better. The whole situation is a bummer, especially when the game is good.
"While it is very much a game you can buy and enjoy on its lonesome, TWW3 is perhaps better considered as the last, grand instalment of a game whose release began nearly eight years ago with Total War: Warhammer," Nate said in our Total War: Warhammer 3 review. "It's a genuinely epic construction; a proper Pillars-Of-The Earth-level feat of game development."
Total War: Warhammer 3 is out now on Steam and Epic for £50/€60/$60, and on PC Game Pass too.
Until Thursday, people who buy the game will get the Ogre Kingdoms DLC for free, while latecomers will need to buy it. Nic Reubeun will tell you the Ogres are delightful greedyguts but I might still wait to see if the devs fix the game.
Disclosure: RPS co-founder Alec Meer (RPS in peace) wrote on Total Warhammer 3.